BUEG Holiday Mixer

My birthday happened to coincide with the Brown Entertainment Group (BUEG) Holiday Mixer which I was tasked with hosting.

We held it at Formosa Cafe, which serves Chinese-ish specialties and caffeinated vodka.



Dinner consisted of Kobe Burgers and Seared Delicious Tuna.



And then there was mingling.



Racquel gifted me with the new Celine Dion CD.

It is SO GOOD.



And of course it isn't your birthday if you don't drink a lot and are surrounded by your special people.





And of course y'all haven't drunk enough if you don't at one point get a full beer knocked clear out of your hand and all over someone.



Or you don't dance around screaming...



Or you don't go to late night Bossa Nova and clear out a full plate of Pasta Arrabiata with Chicken plus Shrimp Bruschetta and Margherita Pizza oh god we are so fat




Get ready for Del's Saloon.

Day of Birth

Woke up to a beautiful surprise FedEx delivery from Anne.



Also Kwisty (and MikeMike) gave me an incredible gift which they "accidentally" left the $500 price tag on.

(I think if I were spending that kind of dough I'd do the same thing.)





Between facebook and texts and gchat and phone calls this day is going so lovely.

Thank you to all my loved ones.

Drinking commences in 6 hours and 43 minutes.

...............

Oh I should probably also mention that I highlighted my hair.



It looks AWFUL.

You'll see later.

MacM@ster!

Did you ever wonder what MacM@ster-Carr actually looks like?

On my way home from Vegas I decided to stop by Santa Fe Springs for a visit at the little screw factory that has employed so many of my friends.




Katie works in cubicle heaven.



Eugene works in the warehouse.




And together they all sell lots and lots of screws.



It's a pretty incredible operation.

Crap Vegas vs. Not-Crap Vegas

We started out at the north end of the strip.

Yuckitty yuck yuck yuck.





Then we went down to the Venetian.



And finally the Bellagio.

Vegas Day 2

We did some touristy stuff.




Played some slots.

Won a mini jackpot.



Ate some foods.



Went up to Mix at the top of Mandalay Bay.




And then went to RumJungle so that Laura's mom could get her dancing fix for the evening. (She is obsessed.)






Yes, we were the first ones in the club and only ones on the dancefloor.



And some of us danced up a storm.



(Vegas is very different when you're experiencing it with someone's mommy.)

Vegas with Veg-Ass

The day after thanksgiving, I picked up Laura Martin's vegetarian ass and we drove out to Vegas to meet up with her crazy little family.

Laura was in town from Austin visiting her soon-to-be in-laws in Pomona or Claremont or something.

The drive out of LA County took hours. Not fun.




There was an enormously full moon though. That was neat.



For dinner with the fam we went to the beautiful but decidedly NOT-sweet Red Rock Casino on the outskirts of the city.






After dinner, Laura's mom insisted on going dancing so we went to the club in the Casino - Cherry.

The crowd was an assortment of potato-shaped fifty-somethings.

It reeked of cigarette smoke and desperation.




But whatevs.

Laura, her cousin Ryan, and I hung out, danced around, made fun of the people, and had a fun time.